DL Open Thread: Saturday, March 19, 2022
Bitcoin Miners Came To Appalachia. Lied about the impact. Hmmm, sounds like a promising story line for the Justified reboot:
Instead, the noise came to themin April last year when the Tennessee-based firm Red Dog Technologies opened a plant in Limestone to mine (or create) new bitcoin, the original and still-largest cryptocurrency.
The process relies on massive computers performing complex calculations — all while kept at a constant temperature by equally massive cooling fans — and that can get noisy.
The Limestone mine operates day and night, growing louder at night and on weekends when bitcoin’s electricity-hungry computers can take advantage of down time and lower prices on the electricity grid and ramp up their algorithmic-solving power.
The Tactics Employed By Big Oil’s Lawyers. Let’s face it, the only thing that will stop Big Oil is the complete depletion of oil:
Desperate to avoid costly settlements, the fossil fuel industry relies on front organizations to discredit the litigation and sway public opinion in its favor. So nearly three years ago, the friends of big oil turned to Goldberg, a former Democratic congressional aide and self-described “committed environmentalist,” to persuade Americans that the companies responsible for the growing climate disaster are now the ones to fix the problem.
Though Goldberg heads an ostensibly independent initiative called the Manufacturers Accountability Project, much of its funding comes from some of the biggest names in the oil business.MAP hiredGoldberg to push back against litigation on the fossil fuel industry’s behalf, allowing oil companies to keep their hands clean in the process.
Goldberg is leading a charge in local media to discredit those suing the fossil fuel industry as a “fringe litigation movement” conspiracy of opportunistic politicians, environmental extremists, and money-grasping lawyers who pose a threat to the American way of life.
Cali To Fund Land Purchase By Indigenous Peoples? I flat-out love this idea. Hope the Governor can get it passed:
Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday proposed giving California’s Indigenous nations $100m so they can purchase and preserve their ancestral lands.
The proposal is part of his pledge to make sure nearly one-third of California’s land and coastal waters are preserved by 2030. But rather than have the government do all of that, Newsom said Indigenous leaders should have a say in what lands get preserved.
“We know that California Native peoples have always had an interdependent relations with land, waters, everything that makes up the state of California,” Newsom said. “Unfortunately we also know that the state has had a role in violently disrupting those relations.”
He added, “We heard loud and clear in our consultations with more than 70 different California Native American tribes a strong desire from tribal governments to play a leading role in restoration and conservation efforts that benefit tribal communities and honor their connections to the lands and waters.”
The proposal comes amid a growing Land Back movement to return Indigenous homelands to the descendants of those who lived there for millennia before European settlers arrived.
AG Jennings: Don’t Be Taken In By Scam Ukraine Charity Pitches. Good advice. Our readers are too smart to fall for this stuff, but not everybody is as tuned in.
How Wilmington Will Spend Pandemic Relief $$’s. Well, at least what little information Mayor Mike will acknowledge. What’s the over/under on how many more bucks end up in the pockets of Buccini/Pollin?:
Who will benefit from the $55 million in federal relief funds Wilmington received to help close deficits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will be largely unknown until the money is spent.
“I’d like to think we are going to continue to announce everything we are doing as we do it. If we send out a check to somebody, it should get on the website,” Mayor Mike Purzycki said during a February interview about the process of spending the American Rescue Plan Act funds. “It’s subjective, and I don’t deny that for a moment, but we do our level best to inform (city) council to make sure they see who we are supporting. We mostly support those that are recommended and supported by council.”
Man, this process is almost completely non-transparent. Not just in Wilmington, but across the country.
What do you want to talk about?
